Instant Pot Potato Soup (With and Without Bacon)

This easy comfort food recipe makes a creamy potato soup in the Instant Pot. And of course, topping it with your favorite green onions, shredded cheddar, and bacon will make it an even more delicious soup.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• How to Make Instant Pot Potato Soup
• Variations
• Best Potatoes for Instant Pot Potato Soup
• Do I have to make homemade chicken broth?
• Should I top my potato soup with bacon?
• Can I make this vegetarian?
• Why use cornstarch in potato soup?
• Why a cornstarch slurry?
• What to Serve with this Instant Pot Potato Soup recipe
• 🛠 Equipment
• 📏Scaling
• Simple Instant Pot Potato Soup Recipe
• ☃️ Storage
• 🤝 Related Posts
• 💬 Comments

This is a simple recipe, so it depends on good ingredients, especially the chicken broth. Yes, I’m singing the praises of Instant Pot Chicken Broth again. If you have’t tried it, you really need to. Homemade broth is one of the best things you can do to improve your home cooking. Or, if you're looking for another hearty soup, check out my Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot) Lentil Soup Recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4 cups chicken broth (homemade or low-sodium store bought)
• 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt (if using homemade broth)
• 3 pounds of russet potatoes, peeled (about 6 medium potatoes), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• 1 cup whole milk

Garnishes (optional)

• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Chopped green onion
• Chopped cooked bacon (or bacon bits), optional

See the recipe card for details

How to Make Instant Pot Potato Soup

Sauté the Onion, Garlic, and Thyme in Butter

Sauté the onion, garlic, and thyme in butter: Melt the butter in an Instant Pot set to sauté mode - medium. (Use medium heat in other pressure cookers.) Add the onion and garlic, and sprinkle with the thyme and ½ teaspoon sea salt. Sauté until the onion softens, about 5 minutes, stirring and scraping often with a flat edged wooden spoon to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot.

Potatoes and broth in the pot

Pour the chicken broth into the pot, then stir in the teaspoon of fine sea salt (if using homemade chicken broth) and add the potatoes.

Pressure cook for 5 minutes with a Quick Release

Lock the lid and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. (Use “manual” or “pressure cook” mode in an Instant Pot.) Quick release the pressure from the pot. After quick-releasing the pressure, remove the lid away from you – be careful, the steam is scalding hot.

Simmer the cornstarch and milk slurry

Set the Instant Pot to sauté mode - medium again (medium-high heat on a stovetop), and bring the soup to a simmer. While the soup is heating, put the cornstarch in a small bowl, and slowly whisk in ¼ cup of the milk to make a cornstarch slurry. Once the soup is simmering, slowly stir the cornstarch slurry and the rest of the milk into the soup. Simmer the soup for 3 minutes to thicken the cornstarch.

Serve

Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with the shredded cheddar, green onion, and (optional) bacon. Serve and enjoy!

Variations

To make Instant Pot potato soup even richer, substitute half-and-half (or heavy cream) for the regular whole milk. To make the potato soup healthier, use 2% or skim milk.

Best Potatoes for Instant Pot Potato Soup

Using a starchy potato is important for a creamy soup. Starchy russet potatoes are best. If all you have are waxy potato varieties, like red potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes, they will work, but the soup will not be as thick.

Do I have to make homemade chicken broth?

You really should try pressure cooking your own chicken broth. It’s easy to make and freezes well. It’s one of the secret ingredients that make restaurant food taste so good. Homemade broth was one of the things that converted me to pressure cooking; once I tried a soup made with homemade chicken broth, I couldn’t go back.

That said…

If homemade broth is a bridge too far, go ahead and get store-bought broth. If you use store-bought broth, unless it is salt-free, skip the 1 ½ teaspoons of fine sea salt I add to the pot with the broth.

Should I top my potato soup with bacon?

You have to ask? Of course you should sprinkle some bacon on there. Well, unless you’re against bacon…see the next question.

Can I make this vegetarian?

Of course - potato soup is an obvious recipe for vegetarians. Substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth (again, use homemade vegetable broth or store-bought low sodium broth) and skip the bacon.

Why use cornstarch in potato soup?

Because the starch from the potatoes isn’t quite enough. In a stovetop soup, simmering would reduce the liquid and thicken up the soup. We’re pressure cooking in a sealed pot, so there is no evaporation. Everyone loves creamy potato soup, so I want to add extra starch to help thicken it. Why cornstarch? Because it is an ingredient I always have in my pantry. If you have potato starch, you can substitute it for the cornstarch in this recipe.

Why a cornstarch slurry?

Why can’t I just add the cornstarch into the pot? Because the corn starch will clump up immediately in hot liquid. “Starch gelatinization” is the technical term - when cornstarch is heated to 160°F, it starts to thicken. Stirring it into cold liquid first - making a slurry - spreads the starch out int the cold liquid. Then, when the slurry is stirred into the soup, the starch is spread out, and when it thickens it doesn’t make big clumps.

What to Serve with this Instant Pot Potato Soup recipe

I serve this soup with crusty bread, a salad, and a selection of potato toppings. a salad.

I top my potato soup like a loaded baked potato. My favorite toppings are:

• Diced onion
• Sliced green onions.
• Sour cream.
• Shredded cheddar cheese.
• Grated parmesan cheese.
• Crumbled cooked bacon.

🛠 Equipment

A 6-quart pressure cooker.

📏Scaling

This recipe scales down down easily - cut everything in half if you don't need as much soup, or have a 3-quart pressure cooker. Scaling up runs into space issues. If you have an 8-quart pressure cooker, you can double this recipe. The cooking time is the same as the regular recipe, even if you scale up or down.

Print

☃️ Storage

This soup makes great leftovers. You can refrigerate this soup in 2-cup containers for a couple of days, or freeze for up to six months.

🤝 Related Posts

Instant Pot Chicken Back Broth - the cheap way to make broth
Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Broth - the easy way to make broth
Instant Pot Rustic Rotisserie Chicken Potato Leek Soup
Instant Pot Day-After-Thanksgiving Turkey Soup with Mashed Potato Dumplings
Instant Pot Loaded Smashed Red Potatoes
Instant Pot Meatball Soup
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes

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